Inside the Kering Foundation’s Fourth Annual Caring for Women Dinner in New York

The most famous and most influential figures: few events in New York bring them all together in one room like the Kering Foundation’s Caring for Women dinner. On Thursday night, the charitable event returned to The Grill and The Pool for its fourth year, raising a record-making $4.5 million in support of ending gender-based violence.

“I like this song,” said event cohost Salma Hayek Pinault at the start of the night, shimmying to the sound of light jazz music playing overhead as she posed for photos with husband François-Henri Pinault at the top of The Grill’s staircase. The jazz was soon drowned out by the din of cocktail hour chatter, as guests like Dakota Johnson, Julianne Moore, Kirsten Dunst, Seth Meyers and Alexi Ashe, Adrien Brody, Georgina Chapman, Jonathan and Lizzie Tisch, Iconiq’s Michael Anders, Away founder Jen Rubio, Baz Luhrmann, Anna Wintour, Wendi Murdoch, activist Dolores Huerta and more filled the room.

“ This is my third year attending,” said Linda Evangelista, hanging by the packed bar. “It’s like going back to school. I just think kicks off the whole season of events that are about to follow. It’s such an important cause. I love how Kering supports women. I’ve been personally affected by this cause.”

”I really admire the work that Kering does, to use the platform and power that they’ve amassed in being creative juggernauts in the field to be able to give back in such a real way,” said Yara Shahidi, a Gucci ambassador who was dressed, naturally, in a green Gucci gown. “I love the fact that so many people at Kering are extremely aligned with being able to give back in this way, and be participants in conversations that fashion doesn’t always engage with.”

During cocktail hour, the VIP section was the balcony overlooking the room, where François-Henri Pinault chatted with dinner keynote speaker Diane von Furstenberg, and newlyweds Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez held court.

In the backstage staging area, others were catching up before making their grand entrance at the start of dinner. Cohost Colman Domingo offered Lenny Kravitz an enthusiastic greeting, surprised they hadn’t run into each other at Valentino’s Studio 54 party the night before. “I was sitting with Evan ,” said Kravitz, as Domingo countered, “We were dancing.”

Demi Moore, another cohost, fielded compliments on the high leg slit in her gown as fellow cohost Jessica Chastain followed shortly behind her.

Once everyone was seated, MC Ariana DeBose introduced the Kering Foundation’s chairman to the stage. “Your presence here tonight is not only a sign of support, it’s a declaration that gender-based violence must end,” Pinault told the crowd.

The dinner highlighted the work of the four nonprofits that were benefited by this year’s event: Sanctuary for Families, FreeFrom, Violence Intervention Program, and Equality Now.

”Each time it’s a success,” said Kering Foundation president Marie-Claire Daveu, also Kering’s chief sustainability and institutional affairs officer, of the annual dinner. “And when I say a success, it’s really a success in two dimensions. First, it’s a way we need to raise awareness about the topic,” she added. “ It’s also about the fact that we are able to have money for the NGOs, in addition to what the Kering Foundation is doing. And with this money, all these NGOs are able to implement actions on the ground.”

The money came into play after dinner (and after a speech by von Furstenberg), when auctioneer Lydia Fenet took the floor for a live auction featuring exclusive Kering-brand experiences that for one night only, money could indeed buy. A Saint Laurent “cultural experience in Paris” set the tone at a $175K gavel price, and an opportunity to have one of the first made-to-measure Gucci gowns designed by Demna proved particularly popular — and after a back-and-forth, was sold twice over for $210K to Lauren Sánchez and Mona Patel. The Balenciaga “couture experience” similarly sold twice, at $170K each. Von Furstenberg raised her paddle for the closing lot, a Jeff Koons artwork, which ultimately sold to another bidder for $275K.

“Giving feels so good, and there are so many of us in this room who have literally everything we could ever want in the world,” DeBose told the crowd. “So if you want to make a pledge, babes, make a pledge. you don’t need an auction to make a difference in the world.”

Afterward, as some guests made their exit (although hard to believe, it was technically only the first night of fashion week) and others awaited the arrival of their dulce de leche cake for dessert, performer FKA Twigs slowly weaved her way across the room and onstage to close the night on an even higher note.